


hey now, you're an all-star

by idontshaveforsher_yesyoudo



Series: the queer and wondrous life of peter parker [2]
Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Bisexual Michelle Jones, Coming Out, Flash throws a party because it's not one of my spiderman fics if there's no party at Flash's house., Fluff, Getting Together, Multi, Mutual Pining, Ned is oblivious, Pansexual Peter Parker, Polyamory, Underage Drinking, as in: coming out to each other about the fact that they're Not Straight, demisexual ned leeds, if you're american that is, this is a stand alone !! you dont have to read the rest of the series !!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-11
Updated: 2018-08-11
Packaged: 2019-06-25 22:54:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15650592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idontshaveforsher_yesyoudo/pseuds/idontshaveforsher_yesyoudo
Summary: Peter murmurs, “I had a revelation while swinging through the city and got distracted…”“And then?” Ned is grinning already. He can see where this is going.Peter’s voice is even quieter as he continues, “… and I may have hit a building. With my body.”--This is the story of one Ned Leeds hopelessly pining after his two best friends who seem to be in love with each other - and the story of one Ned Leeds being oblivious to the fact that said best friends might, possibly, maybe, like him just as much.





	hey now, you're an all-star

**Author's Note:**

> so I'm not sure about this pairing but I got struck by inspiration & had to write this? maybe I'll continue this at some later time, we'll see. (maybe introducing shuri? would anyone read that?)
> 
> disclaimer: some characters identify as 'queer' in this. just a heads up for anyone who feels uncomfortable with that. also I'm not demisexual, so I'm sorry if I mis-wrote Ned in some way (I'm pretty sure it's alright though).
> 
> unbeta-ed and kind of written in a rush, any mistakes are mine. feedback is always much appreciated!

 

It’s always been clear to Ned that Peter and MJ would end up together one day.

It was the small things – MJ teasing his best friend, making him blush as much as possible, Peter always checking if she ate something during lunch, them chatting away about books, insulting each other, flirting in that stupid fifteen-year-old way that’s ridiculously obvious but also low-key adorable.

Then they actually become something more than _we-sit-together-at-lunch-sometimes_ acquaintances, become friends sometime after Liz leaves and the three of them hang out all the time, and now life is confusing, because suddenly he starts to like MJ.

It starts one day when Peter’s missing during lunch. (He just texted Ned the spider-emoji, which means he’s off somewhere saving the world, or at least some cat stuck in a tree.)

He’s sitting there alone, reading some of his history homework, when MJ throws herself down in the chair next to him with a ‘hey, loser’ and steals one of his chips. Which is weird, because up to now their common denominator has always been Peter dragging both of them along to the cinema, calling MJ over to sit with him and Ned during lunch, picking them during decathlon training to revise with him, and Ned now realises that while they’ve spent a lot of time together during the last year, they never actually hung out just the two of them.

He doesn’t make a big deal out of it, though, and they both just keep reading and sharing his chips.

And then suddenly she looks up and asks him about his opinion on what the book she’s reading has to say on systematic racism in America’s high schools, and suddenly they’re deep in a conversation and only stop talking when the bell interrupts them.

MJ looks up almost surprised, and then the corner of her mouth tilts up in an almost-smile.

“I’ll see you later, nerd.”

Ned grins back at her. “Later, MJ.”

After that, a wave of crime seems to hit Queens, because Peter is out as Spiderman more often than not, which means that Ned and MJ spend more time together, and their budding friendship evolves further.

She texts him late at night sometimes, and neither of them discuss why they’re both awake at this time. (He wouldn’t be able to give a good explanation other than worrying about Peter so he’s glad about it, but secretly he also worries about MJ and what keeps her up this late.)

MJ sends him everything from YouTube links for videos of baby otters getting a bath to quotes from a book she’s reading with the addition if ‘discuss’, leading to long text conversations about how dope Peggy Carter was or the consequences of Darwin’s theory of evolution in World War II.

One night (at about two am) Ned’s phone screen flashes up with a face time call from MJ and when he answers her face appears, hair messy and dark circles under her eyes as usual, her frown in place as always, but the fact that she’s calling him at two in the morning from the privacy of her bedroom makes the whole thing different, softer somehow, and when she raises her eyebrow at him like she always does in greeting something in his stomach starts fluttering in a strange way.

“I need your help picking out the colour scheme for the new decathlon flash cards” is all she says, and they spend the next hour debating the different options, talking softly, sometimes drifting off to memories of past practices, like that time Flash hit his head on a chair and had to go to the nurse and that time Cindy had an allergic shock because she decided to eat a Snickers despite being allergic to peanuts.

By the time they hang up they’re both hiding their yawns, and Ned sleeps better than he has all week.

When he wakes up in the morning he realises that MJ is on her way to becoming just as close a friend as Peter and the thought makes him smile all the way to school.

 

\--

 

Then, after another late night call, realisation hits him like a truck.

He’s been low-key crushing on his best friend for so long that he just assumed that he’s gay, because no other girl (or boy, for that matter) ever looked as good to him as Peter, no one ever looked as cute to him as Peter with sweater paws, no one ever affected him the way Peter walking around shirtless does (even before he got bitten by a spider and developed god-like abs).

But tonight MJ yawned and rubbed her eyes and all he could think of was _holy shit she’s adorable_ , and now that he thinks of it stuff like this has happened a lot recently. Whenever MJ smiles at him his stomach flutters in that weird way, and the few times he makes her laugh with her whole body his eyes seem transfixed on her every motion, taking in the way her nose scrunches up adorably and her shoulders shake as she tries to get herself under control again.

A few days ago during lunch she was wearing tight leggings under some kind of hoodie-dress, and when she kicked up her legs onto his lap while reading he couldn’t focus on anything else all day.

The picture gets clearer and at the same time more confusing the more he thinks about it, and as he starts panicking he decides to do what he does best as a Certified Nerd – research.

He spends hours on the Internet trying to find out what exactly his newfound feelings mean, what he could be instead of _gay_ , why he only started liking MJ in _that way_ after they became friends and why the _fuck_ he suddenly wishes he could lean forward when she’s sitting with him and just… kiss her.

 

\--

 

A few weeks later he finds himself calling MJ to calm himself down after watching the news. Some apartment complex is on fire in the neighbourhood and his hands are still shaking at the pictures of a red-clad figure swinging in and out of the building, carrying children and pets to safety, even though his living room is dark now, the only light coming from his phone.

So he calls MJ, and she picks up on the second ring, and when she hears the slight tremble in his voice as he greets her she doesn’t ask questions, but launches into a rant about what some politician did this week.

Her soft voice against his ear calms his breathing, and as the minutes pass he moves to his bedroom and cuddles up in his bed, covers pulled up to his chest. He trusts MJ with his life, he realises as he listens to her rambling about how the same politician had a scandal because of his gay son last year and that’s just shitty and the US is shitty and the whole world is shitty in general, and suddenly he interrupts her.

“I think I might be bi.”

MJ stops in the middle of her sentence and there’s a soft ‘oh’ on the other end of the line.

He continues before she can speak. “And maybe demisexual, as well.”

It’s silent again and his heart beat sounds too loud to his own ears, but then MJ exhales softly.

“Me too. I mean, the bi thing.” Ned holds his breath. “And thanks for telling me about the demi thing.”

And then Ned starts laughing, relief flooding through his body like a tidal wave, shoulders shaking as he tries to be quiet because it’s three in the fucking morning, and MJ’s laughing against his ear and the whole situation’s kind of ridiculous but also so, so amazing.

Once they calm down a bit Ned tells her, “I’m not sure about the ‘bi’, to be honest. Maybe I’m pan.”

“Maybe you don’t need a label.”

“Maybe I’m just queer. That sounds best to me.”

He can hear MJ’s small smile as she replies, “Alright, then. Guess we’re queer-buds.”

And even though Ned kind of, low-key, maybe wants them to be more than buds he can’t stop his grin as he says, “Queer-buds it is, then.”

 

\--

 

The next morning at school their eyes meet in the hallway and it’s clear that something has changed. Not in a way that’s huge or noticeable to anyone but themselves, but there’s a sense of mutual trust and understanding that wasn’t there before them.

Ned smiles when she walks up to him and Peter and she raises an eyebrow.

“Hey, losers.”

Peter greets her with his usual dopey grin and before all of her attention gets caught up with insulting the pun on his new t-shirt she sends Ned the tiniest nod and one corner of her mouth quirks up.

He nods back and then launches in a defence-speech for the – in his opinion – glorious pun.

 

\--

 

Two weeks later they’re both at Peter’s without Peter because he’s late (as usual).

May let them in earlier and asked them about school and other things, then left with the plea for them to go to sleep at least at a halfway reasonable time.

Frank Ocean is playing on the stereo and MJ’s talking about Jane Eyre (she just read it for English) as they wait for their microwave popcorn to finish. She’s saying something about how Jane is actually a lesbian, but Ned stopped listening when _Moon River_ started playing and she started swaying her hips along to the music, his eyes transfixed on the movement.

Their (one-sided) conversation ends abruptly when there’s a sudden crash in Peter’s room.

MJ stops talking and throws Ned a confused look, which he returns even though he has a terrible suspicion what the noise could be about. They both turn to face the door just as it bangs open, revealing Peter, still in his spider-suit, mask off and hair standing in every possible direction, a purple bruise covering half of his face. His mouth is open and it looks like he was just about to say something but then realised what kind of situation he is in.

Everyone stays frozen and all Ned can think is ‘fuck, now he truly fucked up, there’s no way we can get out of this one.’

Then the timer of the microwave goes off and they’re all woken out of their trance.

Ned clears his throat and turns to take the popcorn out.

MJ just says, “Right.” Ned can _hear_ her raised eyebrows.

Peter begins stuttering something, but MJ interrupts him. “That explains a lot, actually.” Then she grabs the bowl of popcorn and moves to sit on the sofa.

Peter sends Ned a confused, panicky look but Ned just shrugs and gestures to his face. “You need ice for that?”

“For wha- oh, yes, that’d be a good idea probably.”

They follow MJ, Peter with an ice pack pressed to his cheek, and she pats the spots next to her on the sofa, which is where they obediently sit down.

“So, are you gonna tell us what happened to your face? Not that it makes much of a difference, but still…”

Peter squawks a ‘hey!’ but blushes an adorable pink. (Or at least, the part of his face that isn’t purple already.) He murmurs, “I had a revelation while swinging through the city and got distracted…”

“And then?” Ned is grinning already. He can see where this is going.

Peter’s voice is even quieter as he continues, “… and I may have hit a building. With my body.”

MJ turns to Ned and they’re silent for a minute, then burst out laughing.

“Christ, you’re unbelievable.” MJ sputters as her whole body shakes and Ned giggles even more.

Once they’ve calmed down a bit MJ asks, “So what was that big revelation of yours?”

Peter blushes again, then says, “I need to think about it for a while, I think. Before telling you.”

Ned exchanges a look with MJ. “Alright then. Tell us when you’re ready.”

One of MJ’s rare grins lights up the room. “But seriously? A building?”

Ned grins back at her. “You think it’s on YouTube?”

 

\--

 

Ned forgets about it for a while until he’s hanging out with Peter a few weeks later (building a new Star Wars Lego toy, of course).

Peter looks at Han’s figurine for a long time and Ned’s just about to snap his fingers to get him out of his head when he says, “I’m pan for Han.”

Ned stares at him in slight confusion and Peter grins. “Some people are gay for him, I’m pan.”

Ned grins. “Nice dude.”

They continue with their construction as usual until Ned says, “I’m queer for him. And I’m demi, by the way.”

Peter grins. “Nice, dude.”

He holds out his hand and they do their fist-bump and nothing has changed between them, but the air is slightly less tense than before, no secrets thickening it.

“Wait, was that the revelation you had the other day?”

“Well…” Peter trails off and Ned raises an eyebrow. “Okay, there might’ve been some shirtless construction workers.”

Ned grins. “ _Nice_ , dude.”

 

\--

 

One night Ned gets a text.

 **MJ:** peter knows abt me being bi now, btw.

 **Ned:** cool, same here

 **MJ:** did he also tell you about…?

 **Ned:** jupp

 **MJ:** noooice.

 

\--

 

They’re hanging out at Peter’s again, and he’s animatedly telling them about some robber he just stopped on patrol when May walks in.

They all greet her happily and she takes in the scene in front of her, Peter still clad in red, MJ and Ned smushed together on his bed because his room is cold and they’re sharing Peter’s only blanket, no other reason. May hides a smile and sighs.

“At least change out of your costume, Peter?”

Peter grins at her and Ned’s heart melts at the sight. “Sure thing!”

“Great.” She directs her next question to Ned and MJ. “You guys staying for dinner? We’re having pizza.”

Ned and MJ exchange a look.

“Yes, please!”

May smiles at them and leaves the room, closing the door behind her.

Peter continues with his story but Ned isn’t listening anymore because Peter has loosened up his suit and is shimmying out of it and his abs are taking up all of Ned’s attention because… _reasons_.

He hears MJ mutter a ‘fuck’ under her breath and he knows that she’s just as distracted as he is. Peter’s still talking as he looks for some other clothes to wear, and Ned clenches his jaw. His friend is entirely unaware of the situation, and once his abs are covered by a hoodie (which doesn’t really make it better, because now he has _sweater paws_ , for fucks sake) Ned and MJ share a look of suffering. At least they’re in this together.

 

\--

 

Ned is supposed to be doing his Calculus homework.

Which is hard, because MJ’s sitting opposite him in the library and she’s wearing a grey sweater that keeps slipping off her shoulder and revealing her collarbone.

And it’s really not Ned’s fault that his eyes get drawn to it, that he stares when MJ shrugs her shoulder to get the sweater back in place, that her hair is falling in her face especially enticing today, that every now and then she sucks on her lower lip in concentration and that it’s absolutely fucking distracting.

He looks down at his book, looks up again, forces himself to look away. Maybe something in the library can take his attention away from her, he thinks as he lets his eyes wander around. They land on Peter.

Peter, who’s supposed to be doing something for chemistry but who’s eyes seem to be stuck on where MJ’s sweater is once again threatening to slip off her shoulder. Ned watches as he shakes his head, looks down at his homework, smiles to himself as Peter’s eyes slowly trail up and find MJ’s shoulder again.

As Ned watches his friend the same thing happens three times successively and he stifles a laugh.

MJ doesn’t seem to hear it, luckily, or maybe she just ignores it. Peter on the other hand looks at him questioningly and Ned raises an eyebrow, tilts his head towards MJ.

An adorable blush covers Peter’s cheeks and Ned nods in understanding.

Just then MJ moves in her chair and tilts her head so that her curls spill across her bare shoulder and Ned knows that him and Peter must look like proper fools right now, eyes wide as they try to keep it together at the sight of their unfairly hot friend.

MJ finally seems to feel their eyes on her and looks up, raises an eyebrow. Peter, who has been balancing on only two legs of his chair for the past twenty minutes, almost topples over, swipes two books off the table, tries to pick them up again and hits his head against the table.

MJ smiles that half-smile of hers, eyes twinkling, and all Ned can do is drop his head in his arms and groan.

Life is unfair.

 

\--

 

Ned is having the best day of his life.

Tony fucking Stark called Peter in the morning and told him he’d updated the software of his suit, and now Ned has been on his computer in Peter’s room for about three hours, going through the code, trying to figure out how it works and what the new updates do.

It’s insanely cool and he can’t believe that he’s actually looking at something that Tony fucking Stark personally custom-programmed for Ned’s friend. His life is fucking insane and he loves every second of it.

Peter and MJ are there as well, doing homework or something that Ned doesn’t really care about right now, because he’s admiring an algorithm that Tony fucking Stark (no, he can’t think of him in any other way) created that makes it easier for Peter to know where he has to attach his nets so that his swing-distance is ideal for the situation. It’s a work of art that Ned couldn’t come up with in a hundred years (okay, maybe he’s exaggerating a bit now, it’s not like he is completely incapable at coding).

MJ interrupts him by holding a take-out box in front of his nose.

“It’s seven thirty already, loser. Take a break.”

He looks up and realises that it has gotten darker since he last looked outside. Then he looks around the room and sees that the school material has been shoved in one corner, the floor now occupied with take-out boxes.

Peter grins at him and passes a container with sweet-and-sour over. “It’s so cool, isn’t it?”

Ned accepts it and starts shovelling food into his mouth. He hasn’t eaten anything since lunch and all this brainwork has made him hungry, he now realises. In between bites he says, “Cool? Holy shit, it’s so fucking awesome, oh my god! I still can’t believe that Tony fucking Stark just casually updates your suit regularly! And the code is so dope, guys I can’t fucking believe that this is our life!”

MJ and Peter are both looking at him in what he knows is a mixture of fondness and amusement and MJ takes the box from his hands, handing him the one she’s been eating from. They munch in comfortable silence for a minute, then Ned can’t contain himself any longer and starts up again, rambling about how fucking dope that one algorithm is and how there’s a really smart loop somewhere that he’d never have thought of.

He focuses mostly on his food as he does so, but when he looks up he sees his friends exchanging a look. They turn back to look at him and when they see that he’s looking at them MJ bites her lip and Peter’s cheeks colour the loveliest pink and now Ned’s just confused.

He decides to ignore it and launches into another round of commentary on the new update. He’ll figure out whatever that was some other time.

 

\--

 

Nothing happens for a while, or at least not on _that_ front.

Their senior year starts with a bang, as it’s MJ’s eighteenth birthday the week before school starts and Flash decides that that’s enough of a reason to throw a party. This is, of course, only an excuse because he’d throw a party for pretty much anything, but since Flash has been decently nice to them for the past year whilst ‘cleaning up his act’, as he calls it, Peter, Ned and MJ decide to actually show up.

(And if Ned’s honest, Flash’s parties are actually kind of fun. They’ve attended a handful over the past year and apart from the free booze the mood is usually great as well, and whilst they’re still mostly nerds and/or introverts, hanging out with friends in a fancy house and possibly getting drunk is still fun every now and then. They’re teenagers, for fucks sake, they can try this kind of stuff out. Another plus is that Flash lives in the suburbs in a neighbourhood that doesn’t seem to care about loud music playing until late on the weekend.

And apart from that, Peter always says that you can be friendly with everyone once you’ve had enough to drink. He’s the one who usually ends up being _best friends_ with Flash after a few shots, and once even legendarily won a game of beer-pong with him.)

MJ arrives with Cindy and Betty and it’s clear that they’ve already pre-gamed. MJ’s already at the point of tipsy where she giggles more easily, gives out hugs voluntarily as she greets everyone, stumbles slightly even though she’s wearing her usual black sneakers. In contrast to that, she’s wearing a rather tight black dress that ends halfway down her tights and black stockings that come over her knee so that only a strip of skin is revealed. (Which is actually kind of worse than if she wasn’t wearing any socks because now all Ned can focus on is that part where her socks end and her skirt begins and it’s already driving him insane. A look at Peter tells him that his friend isn’t much better off.)

Flash whistles when he sees her and she tells him to _shut the fuck up_ , but hugs him anyway.

“Happy birthday! Looking good!” Flash grins at her and MJ raises an unimpressed eyebrow. Betty and Cindy start giggling.

“You can thank us for her outfit!”

“Yeah, doesn’t she look great?”

MJ pretends to ignore them but when she hugs Ned he sees that she’s hiding a smile and he smiles as well as he wishes her a happy birthday. She hugs Peter next, who buries his face in her neck a tad too long. (Not that MJ seems to notice. She’s hugging back for longer than she normally would and Ned knows that it’s only partly because of the alcohol.)

“Well then!” Flash breaks up the little party in the doorway. “I suggest we move somewhere more cosy.” As everyone spreads out in the rest of the house he hands MJ a small present. “Got something for the birthday girl.”

MJ unwraps it, smirks and looks up at Flash. “Thanks. You’re not as bad as I thought.”

Flash grins and salutes, then heads off – probably to open his father’s bar and work on getting everyone wasted, as these parties usually go.

Ned, Peter and MJ are the only ones left in the hallway and MJ shakes the little bag that was in the present in front of them. “Turns out that we’re not only getting free booze tonight.”

Ned eyes the bag, then grins as he realises what it is. “I’m getting some of that!”

MJ raises an eyebrow. She’s slightly less tipsy than when she arrived, which sucks for Ned because now she’ll be less easily persuaded to share her present. “You haven’t even given me a birthday present yet and you’re already calling dibs on my weed? Back off, Leeds!”

“Hey, we got you something!” Peter interferes. “We just didn’t want to carry it here, you can get it when we’re at mine the next time!”

MJ inspects the bag in her hand and says, “What is it, then? Tell me now and I might let you have some of this.”

Peter and Ned exchange a look. Peter shrugs his shoulders.

“We got you those books you wanted. The ones you talked about all the time last month?” Ned says.

MJ’s eyes light up. “Really?” Then she seems to realise that she’s dropping her usual façade and schools her features into something less excited. “Well, that’s quite alright. I guess you can have some of my weed.”

There’s still a small smile on her face and Ned and Peter grin back at her and no one says anything and they just stand there in silence, smiling at each other. Which is definitely weird and going to turn awkward soon and thankfully gets interrupted by Flash calling out MJ’s name.

“We’re having a toast, where’s the birthday girl?”

They all move towards the living room (which is where the bar is, so obviously where the most people are as well). Flash has lined up shot glasses, lemon wedges and salt and is taking great care pouring Tequila for everyone. One of his buddies (he has several, all equally rich, braggy, and very much scared of MJ) is pouring champagne and setting down glasses in front of each shot.

Once Flash finishes pouring he spots MJ in the crowd of people filling the room and grins widely, then calls over Cindy, Betty and some other members of the decathlon team as well as a handful of other people in their year. (Nelson from MJ’s English class is there as well, which annoys Ned to no end because he knows that the guy has the hots for MJ and that he’s actually halfway decent. He might be slightly jealous of him, but he’ll deny that if ever asked.)

“Right, we’re celebrating the awesome and totally scary MJ! Everyone grab a shot, leave the champagne for later!”

They obey, gather in a circle and raise their shot glasses.

“To MJ!”

Ned throws back the shot and covers the taste by biting into a lemon wedge. Him and Peter set down their glasses at the same time and Peter pulls a face at him, clearly not a fan of the Tequila either. They both take a glass of champagne and Ned grabs a second one for MJ, who’s just placing down her own shot glass.

“Here, let’s toast again.”

MJ takes the glass happily and they all clink glasses. Peter says, “To you” and looks at MJ with more heart-eyes than should be allowed, but Ned knows that he’s not much better off as he looks at his best friends.

MJ’s eyes flicker from the glasses still held in their middle to Peter and then to Ned. Then she smiles, properly, with teeth and crinkled eyes. “To us.”

 

\--

 

The party kind of escalates from that point.

Not in a bad way, but the longer the night goes on the wilder it gets, with almost everyone being at least tipsy if not flat out wasted by now.

Flash drags MJ away to do celebratory shots periodically. Peter gets his hands on the phone blasting music over the speakers and plays _All Star_. Ned and Cindy spend half an hour trying to figure out the ice machine in the kitchen until Abe comes to their help. There’s some punch that had white wine as its base in the first place but seems to have been spiked (not that anyone cares, considering the amount of alcohol being consumed) with just about every alcohol on the premises. It tastes horrible, but Ned drinks at least three cups of it throughout the evening.

When it’s about three in the morning MJ finds Ned in conversation with some dude that he knows from some class but can’t remember the name of and grabs his arm, pulling him outside through the back door.

There’s no one back here and as soon as the fresh air hits him Ned feels decidedly more sober. (Not _sober_. Just. Less drunk than before.) He looks over at MJ and sees her sprawled out on a deck chair. He lies down on the one next to her.

“Not gonna lie, I don’t think I’m in a state to smoke right now.”

MJ huffs. “Don’t worry, I’m saving my stuff for some other time.”

They lie in silence for a while and Ned feels the effects of the alcohol wear off slowly, but enjoys that he’s still tipsy enough for everything to be a bit slower, a bit less focused than usual.

“Where’s Peter?”

MJ huffs again. “Dancing, I think.” She turns her head to look at Ned. Their heads are quite close this way, almost no gap between the two chairs, almost no distance between them.

Everything is still kind of fuzzy, but all of Ned’s senses are focused on MJ, the way her hair curls and her eyes looking back at him and how soft her lips look.

Suddenly they’re engulfed by darkness as the porch light goes off, MJ’s face now only slightly illuminated by the lights coming from inside. It’s silent between them still. Ned’s eyes flick down to MJ’s lips again. They’re so close now that he can feel her breath on his face.

She makes the first move.

She leans forward just enough for their lips to touch, and after a moment of absolutely no movement of either of them Ned tilts his head just slightly and then they’re kissing.

They’re kissing, and she’s gripping his shirt and one of his hands is in her hair and it’s overwhelming, being this close after pining after her for so long.

Then he’s smiling just a bit, and he feels her lips curl up against his, and then they’re laughing into each other’s mouths and he tucks one of her curls behind her ear and bites his lip.

They separate just a bit and as he takes in MJ’s face it feels as if it’s different now that their lips have touched, now that he’s held her face and felt her smile against his.

Then the back door opens and the porch light goes on.

MJ rolls on her back to get some distance between them and Ned quickly sits up to look at whoever just came outside, eyes trying to get used to the sudden brightness.

It’s Peter, luckily.

(Or maybe unluckily. Ned’s not sure what exactly is going on in this situation and how him and MJ will proceed from here, and he’s definitely not sure how Peter fits into the equation.)

Peter’s hair is flopping into his face as he blinks a few times, then grins as he recognises them.

“Here you are! I was looking for you guys!”

Ned smiles at his best friend, but he knows it doesn’t look entirely genuine with the gears in his head running at high speed. He looks over at MJ who coughs when he catches her eye.

“Hi, loser.” She says, voice almost normal. _Almost_ being the key word here.

Peter frowns. “You okay?”

He’s still tipsy, Ned notes, but not too drunk to properly slur his words.

He looks over at MJ again and then it’s his turn to cough.

Peter looks back and forth between them in confusion. “Okay, what’s going here?”

Ned feels his cheeks heat up.

MJ tilts her head back to look up to the sky.

(The stars are almost visible out here.)

It’s quiet for another moment and then MJ whispers something that sounds like ‘fuck it’ under her breath and sits up. She presses a kiss to Ned’s cheek and he whips his head around to catch Peter’s reaction. His eyes are widened and his mouth is slightly hanging open, which Ned would laugh about if the situation weren’t as tense.

MJ pushes herself to her feet, cradles Peter’s face between her hands and kisses him.

And it’s Ned’s turn to gape because Peter kisses back almost immediately, hands resting on MJ’s waist after a moment of hesitation. She makes a delighted noise and tangles her hands in his hair and Ned just stares at them because this is pretty much all he could ever wish for (except that he’d like to be included as well, maybe, kind of).

MJ pulls away from Peter and smiles as Peter starts sputtering about how he doesn’t understand what’s going on here, and Ned knows both him and MJ aren’t exactly sure, either. MJ collapses back onto the deck chair and pulls Peter’s hand to sit down between her and Ned. Peter does so and he’s staring at Ned in a way that makes his stomach flutter. He turns his head to look at MJ, and the two of them seem to have a short silent conversation with their eyes, then Peter turns back to look at Ned. And kisses him.

At this point, there have been decidedly more spontaneous kisses tonight than Ned would’ve ever expected. At least he’s kind of prepared this time and kisses back immediately. And it’s everything he ever imagined it would be and more and when Ned pulls away Peter’s cheeks are tinted pink and he’s grinning widely.

“Well, I didn’t expect that when I came outside.”

MJ snorts. “I don’t think any of us did.”

The whole thing is kind of ridiculous, and before he knows it Ned starts giggling. It doesn’t take long for MJ and Peter to join him and then they’re all laughing and exchanging kisses and Ned feels incredibly light.

 

\--

 

They’re taking a break from studying one random weekend in October, cuddled together on MJ’s bed under a heap of blankets. Ned is squished between his boyfriend and his girlfriend, with Peter as his little and MJ as his big spoon.

Rain is pouring down outside and they managed to convince Peter to not go out as Spiderman today, telling him that the criminals are all staying home in this kind of weather, anyway. It actually worked and now they’re getting extra cuddle time out of it, and despite the load of work that Ned knows he still has to do he’s content just lying there for a while.

Then he remembers something and huffs a laugh.

“Wha?” Peter mumbles, face smushed against a pillow.

“I always used to think that the two of you would end up together.”

MJ scoffs. Her breath hits his neck as she says, “Without you? As if!”

“Aww, MJ, you actually care about me!”

“Nah. You two are equally annoying. I’m just dating the both of you so you cancel yourself out. Two negatives and all that.”

Ned presses a kiss to Peter’s shoulder. (He has a habit of napping shirtless, says it’s too hot otherwise. Ned and MJ definitely don’t complain.)

“Hear that, babe? Math proves that we’re a positive aspect of MJ’s life.”

“Aww, never thought the day’d come when math would be actually useful to me.”

“You’re literally gonna study engineering.” MJ deadpans.

“Yeah, but I’m also gay.” Ned can hear Peter’s smile as he speaks. “Haven’t you heard? All gays hate math.”

Ned exclaims, “Hey, I don’t!”

“Yeah, tell me that next time you have to do your Calculus homework.”

Ned groans and MJ jabs his leg with her toes. “Can you two shut up? I wanna nap.”

“This is an important discussion, MJ,” Peter says, but it’s lazy and already on the verge of being asleep again.

“Love you guys.” Ned murmurs.

“Yeah, yeah, love you too, don’t let the bedbugs bite and all that jazz. Now shut _up_.”

Ned and Peter obey their girlfriend and shut up.

The sound of their slow breathing and the rain hitting the window lulls them to sleep.

 

 


End file.
